Sharp Lowitz & Parry display, in short time [2023-04-04]

Here are some nice ice halos at the passage of a particular layer of clouds, during a clear sky day (2023-04-04, from near Dole, Jura, France). This clouds layers gave an extraodinary sharp looking display of ice halos, as I rarely saw in 15 years of watching. I was then in the good spot at the right time, for this one. While I was taking care of my lawn, during a clear sky day, I saw some high altitude clouds coming from the north, and decided to take the bet I will have some ice halos, but I did not epected that kind of sharp halos. In all the below images, clouds are coming from the left (North-East).

On this first stack image, you can see the Wegener arc, with almost the part crossing the parhelic circle. There is also the 120° parhelion with reddish edge as well as on the circle.
Process is (as an example of how I do usually, for the image shown above,
named 2023-04-04-[14h57to15h37]-bw-[4-2]-UsM(11)-5s5-notrack-UsM.bmp):
→ B-R ( -bw ) rendering of all the images of the sequence ( -[14h57to15h37] ),
→ 11th stack ( (11) ) of the sequence with 4 images ( -[4 ),
→ then Unsharp mask on this stack ( -UsM ),
→ then a new stack (with Registax, without the track on the sun ( -notrack ))
→ of 5 ( -5s5 ) of last stacks (those ones taken every 2 images ( -2] ))
→ then one more Unsharp filter ( -UsM ) to end it.

Later, like 5-6 minutes later, the layer of clouds enter the 46° FoV from the sun, which gave the most impressive part of the display to me.

Here is one single image, with just B-R rendering (no UsM or what so ever).

Then 2 stack versions witht this image along with some before and after, to see more clearly the Lowitz & Parry display, (on the above one, we can see parts of 46° halo, but not in whiole, because of the hole in the clouds crossing the view... I guess)

and with the images when the clouds are on the side of the sun from my point of view. I even manage to watch clearly the circumscribed halo while i was cutting my lawn.
You can also see the left part of lower Parry arc tangent with the circumscribed halo.

A last part of the display, with clouds on the bottom left of the sun, to see the extension of the lower Lowitz and the extension of the left part of the Lower Parry, tangent to the circumscribed halo.
For this stack, a "min" function is applied during the stacking process, in order to keep the minimum value of each pixel while stacking, and try to make the black forms therefore the colored halos more visible.

A crop on the left sundog, to see the Lowitz crossing and the 2 Parry arcs.

I have not presented any colored versions, because of the heterogeneous form of the clouds mask the halos for this display.

Finally, a time-lapse of the display is available here, which a compilation of differents time-lapses (one for each processing type). From those images are extracted the previous posted here :
www.flickr.com/photos/gaukouphoto/52808574767/in/dateposted/

All images are taken with Canon EoS 6D + 8mm Samyang lens from my roof windows, South-South-East side.
Settings: 1/1000s, ISO100, f/9,4, 1 image every 12s.
Sun mean height is 47° at the time of the sequence.

Google Drive folder shared, with all the images presented here, and the time-lapse.
I still have all the raws of the sequence if needed too.

Halo Complex 2-18-18

Seems like the rare halos keep coming. While visiting my brother and his family I was outside his house watching this halo complex evolve. In terms of rare halos I got parry, 120d parhelia, Wegener arcs, blue on parhelic circle. While enhancing pics and I saw it in pics afterwards an inverted V shaped arc outside the parhelic circle. Could this be hi-sun Tricker arc?

Marko Riikonen what do you think?

Display of 11th June 2017 in Pskov Oblast

Each frame of animation covers ten minutes

There were not rare halos during the display, exept for a weak upper 23° plate arc and a 9° halo. However, the display contained classic halo forms that were quite bright and long lived. I want to show you how these halos change their distance from the sun and curvature in nature. The thing that I remember most is the bright upper tangent arc, that was seen against a very thin ice cloud layer (1).

Display of 3rd August 2017 in Pskov oblast, Russia

Every frame of animation is stack which covers 2,5 min. Colored version is here

At the begining of the display, beautiful cirrus covered the sky, but I did not notice any halos at the time. When I came out a little later, I was surprised to see a bright parhelion and a middle Lowitz arc which crosses it! Cumulus limited the display, so I could observe halos only in gaps between these clouds. There was one short episode when I saw bright upper tangent and suncave Parry arcs. The following rare halos were found in the stacks:

 -well defined upper and middle Lowitz arcs (1) and possible lower Lowitz arc (2)
-part of helic arc (3)
-supralateral Tape arc (4)

Finnish Display 2nd September 2017

Kimmo Laitinen captured a nice display with Wegener arcs and a really strong lower tangent arc on the 2nd September 2017. I'll let Kimmo describe his observation in greater detail in his own words. 

He says, "we drove from Siilinjarvi to our summer house in Leppavirta via Kuopio. In Siilinjarvi the weather was sunny but before Kuopio a thin uniform layer of high clouds covered the sun and we spotted the first halos as we passed the city centre of Kuopio about 11.45.... At this point the 22 deg lower tangent arc was not so impressive and only a short section of the parhelic circle could be seen. Then we went on southward to the Puutossalmi cable ferry.... In Puutossalmi the 22 deg lower tangent arc was the most impressive and reflected nicely from the lake. After the ferry the 22 deg lower tangent arc disappeared but the parhelic circle became all the time longer and a very faint Wegener arc was seen by the naked eye. After driving a few km more southward the low clouds disappeared from the northern sky and the parhelic circle became complete about 12.30 in the village of Lansi-Saamainen in Leppävirta. The 120 deg parhelia were clearly visible and the intersection of the Wegener arcs with the parhelic circle was revealed from the images. After this the display got dimmer but still lasted for a few hours.

All images used by permission. © Kimmo Laitinen. 

Recent displays from St Petersburg, Russia

In this post, I'm including the most interesting displays observed during the last month.

14th March 2017

On that day, halos appeared in the morning in separate cirrus clouds. Their arrival was not predicted by the meteogram. When I looked out from the window, I saw a bright CZA, but when I came down, it had disappeared. Nevertheless, I could see the weak supralateral arc. Half an hour later, I also saw a nice infralateral arc, when the cirrus cloud reached the horizon.

29th March 2017

In the evening bright parhelion was detected, and then a little while later also the wide circumzenithal arc. The halos were produced by the anvil of a convection cell.

1st April 2017

In the morning, at 10-00, the sky was clear. But in the south-west direction, low over the horizon a lot of cirrus clouds were visible. Their arrival was extended for an hour and a half. When a border of a front of cirrus clouds started to arrive, I noticed that it was weak and almost transparent. When these weak clouds reached the sun, at first I did not notice any halos. But soon, some markers of sub-visual odd radius display appeared.

It was broad and undefined halo in 22° area, with pretty obvious upper 23° plate arc in some moments. In the reflection of my sunglasses these things were visible a lot better. These weak odd radius halos were visible for around a half of hour, or even more while the area of weak cirrus crossed the sun.

Then, on the right-hand side pretty bright 22° halo started to appear. It was the arrival of main part of cirrus. In that area clouds were common and solid. After few minutes both bright tangent arcs appeared. Lower tangent arc was brighter than upper. I also noticed big infralateral arc on the right-hand side. It was pretty weak, but well coloured. I could see the arc better when I used peripheral vision.

This peak of the display was rather lengthy, and during its course I also watched both 120° parhelia, parhelic circle (it was easily seen within 22° ring), and the top part of 46° halo (likely it was the combination of supralateral arc and 46 halo. Although both were weak, together they became visually visible).

The peak was interrupted when middle-level cloud started to arrive. Then I saw a couple times only bright 22° halo

7th April 2017

The display looked quite ordinary, so I was glad I detected pyramidal halos such as upper 23° plate arc and 9° column arc.

9th April 2017

On that day, there was only a weak 22° halo. But the stack discovered also 18° halo/18° plate arc

10th April 2017

It was the weak display, which lasted most of the day. There was no suspicion that there may be pyramidal halos. But still I got upper 23° plate, 18° plate arc and 9° halo in the stacks.

Halo Phenomena in Olaus Magnus’s Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (Part 2)

Halo phenomena in Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, Bk. 1, Ch, 14. Image from www.avrosys.nu

The Swedish Olaus Magnus’s 16^th century Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (History of the Nordic Peoples) has several chapters and woodcuts dedicated to halos. The first part of our series introduced this medieval best-selling work, and concentrated on parhelia and paraselenae as described by Olaus. This time the halos of Book 1, Chapter 14 are to be introduced, which is the very first section of his work where he deals with halo phenomena. 

We don’t  know whether Olaus saw any halos in his life, though in Chapter 17, he notes that there were three suns and moons in the sky at the time of his birth. Besides classical natural historical authorities like Pliny the Elder, his information comes most probably from accounts collected during his journeys, which he later recorded according to his own understanding and imagination. He introduces halos as seasonal phenomena, which are connected to early spring and hardly last longer than two and a half hours. He does not even start the list of halo forms with the most frequent ones: the first halos that he describes are the parhelic circle and three patches on it which could be interpreted as the 120° parhelia and the anthelion.

“Up in the north when deep snow covers the earth round about the vernal equinox, circles sometimes appear with the following formation and position. The most spacious circle, spread over the horizon is entirely white, as also are three small circles, each hanging separately from its circumference; towards the east, however, these are distinguished by their yellow colour, as if they are trying to resemble the sun (…)”

Olaus then continues his presentation with the more frequent forms. The 22° halo, the parhelia and the upper tangent arc are easily recognizable, and so is the circumzenith arc. But what comes afterwards (a blackish rainbow and a dusky but colourful one) is more difficult to interpret. We could deduce from their position in the woodcut that he may be talking about supra- and infralateral arcs, but since the depiction and the description are not obvious and they contradict to what such arcs look like in reality, we should not draw further conclusions from them. Olaus’s description is typical of similar accounts: he presents events which took place over a longer stretch of time, disregarding the changes in halo forms as time passes, what is more, he probably never witnessed such halos in the sky.

“(…) and even the body of the sun can be surrounded by a corona or halo of rainbow hues, and has reddish likenesses of itself attached on either side. From these likenesses, or if you wish, from these two suns,  two semicircles, like bows, rise to intersect each other; eventually, after expanding as halos do, they vanish. Around the navel or centre of the most spacious of these circles can be seen an inverted rainbow, which gleams in a cloud of fine vapour. Next there appears another blackish rainbow, opposite to the first in colour and position. Afterwards this bow, dusky but ever varying in colour, as is customary with the celestial arc or rainbow, extends towards the south, crossing through the most spacious of the circles.” 

Vädersolstavlan by Jacob Heinrich Elbfas. Image from Wikipedia

The woodcut illustrating his chapter might look familiar to people interested in historical displays. It bears resemblance to Vädersolstavlan, an oil-on-panel painting by another Swedish man, Jacob Heinrich Elbfas. The painting is the 17^th century copy of the now lost original ordered by the Swedish reformer Olaus Petri, and created by Urban Målare. It shows the halos that appeared over Stockholm on 20 April 1535, 20 years before Olaus Magnus’s book was published. The country at this time was turning to the Lutheran faith, and religious reformation fuelled serious conflicts and controversies between the ruthless reformer king Gustav Vasa, and more moderate Protestants like Olaus Petri. Both parties saw a celestial sign in the appearance of this halo phenomenon, and we can easily deduce that the Catholic Church was also prone to interpreting the halo as a divine premonition. Olaus Magnus himself was the last Catholic archbishop of Uppsala, who had to live in exile for the rest of his life after Sweden had turned to the new religion. Although he does not mention the ominous 1535 Stockholm halo and its contemporary reception, but the striking similarity between the woodcut and Vädersolstavlan might indicate a conscious choice for deciding to start his description of halos in Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus with this very emblematic appearance.

Either influenced by his own fate, or due to contemporary superstitions, Olaus attributes bad omens to such halos. Much of his chapter elaborates on what misery they may bring. As he claims, they “always cause, either by their own nature or for some other, hidden reason, the worst consequences in the time immediately following them: for example, ominous thunderings and thunderbolts which throw houses and animals to the ground; capturing and killing of nobles and common folk, and pillaging of the people in that region, not to speak of enemy fleets, pirate raids, and acts of arson; and when the circles disappear at the end of spring, grains of suphur commonly rain down in a stinking mist.”

By Ágnes Kiricsi


English translation by Peter Fisher and Humphrey Higgens from: Olaus Magnus, A Description of the Northern Peoples, 1555, Vol. 1. Ed.: Peter Foote, Hakluyt Society, 1996.

Snow gun generated column display

On the night of 15th November 2016 (the night of the "supermoon") I was out of the city photographing the full Moon. The humidity was extremely high, which was evident by a huge aureola that was surrouding the Moon.

I was keeping an eye on webcams located at nearby ski centres, because the temperature was dropping below zero and snow coverage was scarce, therefore I was hoping for some snow gun action.

Few centres were operating the snow guns, but no diamond dust formation could be seen, so after a while I decided to return back to the city, but still keep an eye in case the conditions change. According to my previous post, Bílá ski centre is supposed to be the holy grail of diamond dust halos around here. But that is not true, there is another ski centre which generates diamond dust very frequently. I stayed up the whole night because I knew something would happen, and I was right, the ski centre I was talking about started generating halos, so I packed up my things and went again.

It is slightly further away than Bílá, so the trip took a while, but it was totally worth it:

This display, to my astonishment, was generated by a single snow gun (in the picture above it is located just behind the trees). No low hanging stratus, just high humidity and one snow gun. And it wasn't even on my previously planned location, it was actually a few kilometers ahead of it.

There are some indications of Parry oriented crystals, uppercave Parry is present and lowercave maybe too. indicated by a brightening on the circumscribed halo. Lowervex Parry was not seen. Wegener was maybe there, but the display itself was changing quite rapidly and I don't think my photos captured it.

Eventually I have decided to finish driving to my location. No halos there, and as I was returning, only faint and diffuse 22° halo was the only one left in the sky.

The crystal swarm was fairly thick, which can be seen in the main photo - the infralateral arcs were hanging in front of the forest. An amazing sight.

Fun addition: I had actually forgotten my gear at the location, and only realized it at home, so I had to return. It was still there!

Germania in Dove Bay

The etching shown above is based on the drawing of Austrian mountaineer, cartographer and landscape artist, Julius von Payer, and was published in the 30 December 1871 issue of Illustrirte Zeitung. The halo phenomenon was sketched in Dove Bay in the region previously known as King William’s Land, the northernmost area the Second German North Polar Expedition reached. 

In the mid-19^th century, German ambitions to explore to North Polar region resulted in two expeditions. The first, in 1868, got as far as latitude 81°5' near Spitsbergen, but could not reach its planned destination and yielded no significant scientific achievement. The second one was a more extensive journey and aimed at getting to know the central Arctic regions with a planned wintering in the hitherto unexplored northeastern Greenland. 

It was on 15 June 1869, when the two schooners, Germania and its supply vessel Hansa left Bremerhaven. The captain of Germania was Carl Koldewey, who had already gathered experience in polar journeys during the previous German expedition.  After about a month, the two ships met pack ice and got separated due to misreading the flag signs. Hansa was not fortunate: it was crushed by the ice and sank at latitude 70°32', a few kms from the Greenland coast. Its crew of 13 spent the winter in a coal dust briquette shelter and was finally saved. 

Germania, with its crew of 15 men, reached Sabine Island, where the wintering camp was established. In the autumn of 1869 and spring 1870, they made sledge explorations, reaching  the northernmost latitude of 76°30'N. The investigations were led by Payer and the most significant achievement was the discovery of Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord, named after the Austro-Hungarian emperor, who had contributed to the expedition with significant donations. The return of Germania was adventurous. The engine broke, but finally she defeated pack ice, and managed to return to Bremerhaven on 11 September 1870, mostly by using sail.

The Illustrirte Zeitung article does not comment much on the peculiarities of the display witnessed by the explorers. It explains that parhelia are formed by the reflection of sunlight on ice crystals and then explains that sometimes a double ring and colourful arches may form, and even a horizontal line starting from the Sun (i.e.: the parhelic circle). The article then continues with praising the magnificent colours of the display. 

By Ágnes Kiricsi